Saigon to Hanoi by Motorbike: 5 Suggested Routes

Riding from Saigon to Hanoi by motorbike is probably the most popular road trip in Vietnam, and it’s unquestionably one of the best ways to experience the country. For years, travellers simply took the most obvious route: Highway 1. Today, however, thanks to ambitious road building programs, there are far more scenic, pleasant and less trodden ways to ride between the country’s two main cities. Having ridden south to north on numerous occasions (the first time, predictably, on Highway 1), I’ve put together the following 5 suggested motorbike routes from Saigon to Hanoi, so that travellers who are planning this road trip have more of an idea of the kind of options available to them.

New roads have opened up exciting & scenic routes for riding between Saigon & Hanoi

The main objective of these routes is to get from Saigon to Hanoi on good roads, passing good scenery, and avoiding traffic-clogged arteries, such as Highway 1, as much as possible. New roads are constantly being constructed, thus improving journey time and opening access to more parts of the country. The suggested routes below are based on my own experience of riding south to north. I’ve designed each route to suit the needs of different travellers; based on scenery and/or time frame. For each of the 5 routes I have: given it a name, written a short description and bullet points of essential information, illustrated it with an image, and plotted it on a map. The route maps include markers containing links to any Vietnam Coracle guides that are relevant to the route, where you’ll find more detailed information about that particular section of the road trip. For other useful resources that will help you plan your Saigon to Hanoi road trip, such as expenses and weather, see Related Posts.

THE ROUTES:

Click a route from the list below to view the map and read the details:

DESCRIPTION: Weaving a course between coast and highlands, The Classic route is equal parts beach and mountain. Quiet, stunning coastal roads in the south and central provinces yield to a mighty landscape of limestone karsts on the Ho Chi Minh Road in the north-central region. Popular towns and sights, such as Mui Ne, Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, the Hai Van Pass, Phong Nha Caves and Ninh Binh are all covered; but so too are off the beaten path areas, such as the beaches around Quy Nhon, the coastal back-roads north of Hue, and the Western Ho Chi Minh Road. It’s the perfect balance of must-see sights and hidden gems. Zoom in on the map below and click the map symbols for links to my guides to specific locations. Enjoy the ride!

ROUTE MAP: red pins mark major towns, all other markers are links to my guides to specific areas.

DESCRIPTION: Echoing Vietnam’s curving coastline for nearly 1,300km, this is the route to choose if you enjoy sand between your toes, playing in the surf, and the sound of the sea at night. Avoiding Highway 1 for most of its course, The Beach Bum route uses jaw-dropping new coast roads and rarely-ridden coastal back-roads to take you to countless deserted beaches, sleepy fishing villages and hedonistic beach towns. Calling in at established beaches, such as Mui Ne and Nha Trang, this route also covers up-and-coming coastal regions, such as Phan Rang, Cam Ranh and Quy Nhon, where the sand and sea are almost completely undisturbed. When the beaches lose their gloss in the north-central provinces, this route takes to the hills along the Ho Chi Minh Road, for a good dose of limestone magic, including the caves at Phong Nha. Zoom in on the map below and click the symbols for links to my guides to specific beaches and coast roads. Enjoy the ride!

ROUTE MAP: red pins mark major towns, all other markers are links to my guides to specific areas.

DESCRIPTION: Surely one of the most evocative road names in the world, The Ho Chi Minh Road is now a fully paved passage from the south of Vietnam to the north. Uncle Ho’s Road might be the shortest route in this list, but it’s also the most mountainous; following the Truong Son Range, which forms the jagged, high-peaked spine of Vietnam. From vast agricultural plateaus, where tea and timber grow in equal number, to the ragged edge of the frontier lands along the border with Laos; from teetering passes above roaring rivers on the western branch-road, to the limestone wonderland at its northern ‘neck’: you’ll bear witness to some of the most dramatic scenery Vietnam has to offer. Sparsely populated for much of the route, some thriving cities (such as Buon Ma Thuot) and charming towns (such as Kon Tum) offer human interaction, as do the multitude of ethnic minority hamlets lining the way. Geological wonders abound, punctuated by war vestiges with hauntingly familiar names, like Khe Sanh. Enjoy the ride!

ROUTE MAP: red pins mark major towns, all other markers are links to my guides to specific areas.

DESCRIPTION: If time is no object, and you want to see everything there is to see between Saigon and Hanoi, both on and off the beaten path, The Big One has it covered. This meandering route zigzags up the country on mountain passes, coastal back-roads, the Ho Chi Minh Road, and new national highways, to create a road trip of epic proportions. Taking in all the best beaches in southern and central Vietnam, twisting through remote valleys in the Central Highlands, corkscrewing through limestone forests on the Western Ho Chi Minh Road, and following shimmering rivers from source to mouth; this is the definitive south to north route. Major towns and tourist hotspots, such as Nha Trang, Dalat, Hoi An, Phong Nha Caves and Ninh Binh, are woven into this itinerary to balance all the off-the-grid exploration. Don’t forget to zoom in on the map below and click the symbols for links to my guides to specific regions and sights. Enjoy the ride!

ROUTE MAP: red pins mark major towns, all other markers are links to my guides to specific areas.

DESCRIPTION: Specifically designed for travellers who want a less complicated (but no less scenic) passage from south to north, The Easy Rider route sticks to good-quality roads on a relatively direct route from Saigon to Hanoi which is easily navigated. Switching from coast to highlands on several occasions, this route threads an arcing path through some of Vietnam’s most attractive eye candy: Dip your toes in the southern waters of Mui Ne, Nha Trang and Quy Nhon; escape to the cooler climes of mountain towns such as Dalat and Kon Tum; enjoy the cultural delights of Hoi An and Hue, connected by the Hai Van Pass; and gaze in awe at the limestone dreamscape of the Phong Nha Cave system and along the Ho Chi Minh Road. This is a good, time-saving alternative to The Classic route. Make sure you zoom in on the map below and click the symbols for links to my guides to specific sites along the way. Enjoy the ride!

ROUTE MAP: red pins mark major towns, all other markers are links to my guides to specific areas.

Quick question, did you experience any issues with cops in Mui Ne? I was told by travelers and saw some sites online mentioning that cops there will stop tourists and ask to see a Vietnamese license. They do this to all tourists since they know they can get a bribe. I was thinking of biking from sailing to mui ne but I really don’t want to go through this. Let me know if you suggest I go to Mui Ne.

This website is absolute incredible, I will arrive in Saigon early March and will be looking at doing “the big one” route you have here. My only worry is that I am travelling with my girlfriend and hoping to travel on just one bike, do you think that is doable bare in mind we will have 2 large backpacks (approx 15kg each) plus my camera bag full of equipment at 10kg?

Yes, it’s possible but you will need to rent a large bike with a luggage rack and/or bike boxes – most rental companies offer this. Alternatively, you and your girlfriend can put your stuff into one backpack and send the other one up to the rental company’s office in Hanoi and pick it up there when you finish your trip and return your bike to the shop. Again, most of the rental companies offer the buy-back guarantee these days so this should be an option. Try contacting the rental services I recommend in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages: Flamingo, Tigit, Rent a Bike, Dragon Bikes. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Tom firstly congratulations on a great site. Its left me in no doubt that Im making the trip but just got to decide which route to take.
I am planning an overland trip this summer from the UK to Saigon which will now culminate in one of your suggested routes but North to South.
We will probably reach Vietnam (Hanoi) late July and have about 16-18 days to make the trip.
Weather at that time of year in mind, which route would you suggest we take.
Many thanks in advance.
Daz

OK Tom thats great.
Next question. The motorbike shops that have the banners on this site. Do they have branches in Hanoi as that is where we plan to start and if they come recommended by you thats good for me.
Daz

Tom
We’ve decided to give the Classic a go but not before having a week in the North West first.
This will leave us a 2 week window to ride Classic as w’eve managed to get 23 days now.
Where would you recommend we visit on route as must not miss places.
Any suggestions of places to eat and lay our heads would be great.
We are 2 guys in our 50s like a beer at the end of the day etc.
Many thanks Daz

Two weeks is OK, but bear in mind that the Classic route is 2,770km so you will need to average around 200km each day.

For more detailed information about places to see, stay and eat along the route, click on the yellow motorbike markers or the beach markers on the Classic route map, then click the links in the markers which take you to my guides to those specific areas, which include accommodation information etc.

Thanks for putting all of this together. I’m planning on biking Vietnam in mid-March and have a few questions. Is it worth it to use Tigit? Are there any issues with trying to find a full face helmet/do you recommend it? What riding gear is suggested? Can you do your routes in reverse? If I have 5 (maybe 6) days to go from Hanoi to Saigon, which route is the best and how many hours can I expect to be biking each day? How much should I expect to spent to spend throughout the trip? I haven’t had a chance to look through the rest of your website yet but wanted to get these questions down while I was thinking about them.

Yes, Tigit are good, and so are Flamingo Travel, Dragon Bikes, and Rent a Bike Vietnam. Check them out: they are all good, reliable rental services. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

You can buy full face helmets in Vietnam easily. They are safer but also heavier and hotter in the humid tropical weather, but then they are good to keep you warm in the cooler mountain weather.

In mid March it might still be quite cold in places north of Hue, so maybe take a jacket, jeans and waterproofs. But in the south it is hot and humid so if you wear too much gear you will be uncomfortably hot.

Yes, you can ride any of my routes in reverse.

6 days is not enough time to ride between Hanoi and Saigon on any of these routes, unless you want to spend all day everyday on the bike. For example, the shortest route is Uncle Ho’s road (1,880km). That means you’d have to cover an average of 300km a day – this is doable but you can expect to spend about 7 hours riding each day: 10 hours on the road including stops for gas, food, drink, sightseeing. Bear in mind that it gets dark at around 6pm.

I have written an guide to Expenses here, but budget a few dollars more because prices have risen in the last year.

Really interesting read, I have 20 days in Vietnam – do you think this be ample time to ride the “Easy Rider” and buy/sell a bike/explore cities at both ends? Comfortable with long rides but not looking to spend the whole trip glued to the seat!

Yes, 20 days is enough time. If you average roughly 150km each day (very doable and a nice leisurely pace) then you’ll have plenty of time to cover the distance.

Regards buying and selling your bike, I’d recommend nipping that in the bud by rent/buying from one of the reliable services that offer buy-back guaranteed at the end of your trip. Check out Rent a Bike Vietnam, Tigit Motorbikes, Dragon Bikes and Flamingo Travel for example.

To echo the common sentiment here, finding your blog was an absolute godsend! I’m blown away by the breadth of information and your super efficient presentation. I only wish I knew how to deconstruct it to make the most out of my limited trip this March — hopefully, you’ll be able to lend me some wisdom:

I intend to start in Hoi An in the afternoon on March 6, ideally arriving in Hanoi on March 9 (however late in the evening doesn’t matter). I tried to break apart The Classic route, plugging the latter half into googlemaps, but over just 3 1/2 days, it seems ambitious at the least.

I’m 30-years-old and have a ton of experience with motorcycles (mostly supersports) – long days wouldn’t bother me. I’m also more concerned with the riding than the sightseeing on this particular trip, given the limited time, but would of course love to get as much bang for my buck as possible.

Any advice you could lend would be wildly appreciated! And thanks again for this amazing resource!

If you’re an experienced rider you can complete the route between Hoi An and Hanoi over 3.5 days fairly comfortably. But it is a long ride, so try to start early in the mornings (remember it gets dark between 5.30-6pm here in Vietnam) and expect to spend most of the time in the saddle.

From Hoi An you’ll want to decide between taking the Hai Van Pass (along the coast) to Hue or heading straight up to the Ho Chi Minh Road at Thanh My (via road QL14B) – both routes are scenic. Regardless, after that you should plan to stay on the Ho Chi Minh Road all the way to Hanoi. It’s very scenic and great riding for most of the way. Follow my Ho Chi Minh Road guide (sections 4-8) and you shouldn’t have too many problems getting to Hanoi in time.

Your site is extremely helpful, planned most of my trip based on your routes & tips!
I’m going to HCMC in 5 days, have 20 days to get to Hanoi. I plan to stick to Ho Chi Minh Road mostly, though there’s not too much scenery in the beginning as I see it.

I consider going HCMC – Lagi – PhanThiet – Dalat – BuonMaThuot, then follow your route. Any pitfalls on the way?
I’m also a bit worried about the traffic on HCM road the week before Lunar New Year (9-16 Feb), should I prepare for the worst or chill?

The traffic should be OK on the HCM Road before February 16th – probably more buses taking people back to their hometown for New Year – but after the 16th there will be lots of tourist traffic. However, most places should be OK, but popular areas, such as Phong Nha can get extremely busy. There’s a lot of drunk driving at that time of year, so be careful.

From HCMC to Phan Thiet you can follow the Ocean Road. From Dalat to Buon Ma Thuot you’ll need to take road QL27, because although most maps show a route leading north of Dalat on road DT722 (I call it the Pine Tree Road), in reality this ends in a dirt track after around 40km.

I am glued to the screen instead of sleeping reading through your posts and all the invaluable comments and context you provide. I am now 100 % convinced I want to do the Vietnam trip AND on a bike! Thank you so much for this awesome site and turning a vague idea into the first stage of a legit plan! Also, I think you are so kind in answering all those comments! I hope you don’t mind me asking a few super specific questions, feeling encouraged by this 🙂

I am planning to travel to Vietnam end of February for 3-3,5 weeks. Now I am torn between starting the classic route in HCMC to have some beaches first after a long cold German winter and end up in Hanoi, but I also feel REALLY drawn to the Northern Region too. And I feel like I would like to spend more than 1 night in one special place in each region to include some hiking/sightseeing/swimming and relaxing from riding, reading and eating. I was wondering what you would recommend:

1. Which part of the classic route could be skipped/shortcut if I would like to integrate a 3-4 day tour to the North East and still be done after 21 days?
2. Is the weather warm enough in the North East by the second week of March to enjoy sun and being outside?
3. Aren’t there beaches further up north so I could skip parts of the South?
4. If I would like to ride 2 weeks of that trip, but spend 1 week relaxing and walking in cities and nature (especially the north) – would there be a good combination of one part of your tours and a north tour? I am happy to either take the bike on one of the local express trains you mentioned so I have it with me and shortcut; extending riding time for 1-2 days so I can save some riding time the others; picking up the bike further up north and missing some coast (but maybe not the nicest part) – any suggestions?
5. As I am travelling by myself, do you know whether its likely I can find a riding buddy on my way and do you have a good tip where to stop in the beginning of the trip to meet other people on the road?

I will definately check out the links to hotels you provide and am happy to book through them where possible.

I think it’s a good idea to start in the south, because the weather is better in the south at that time of year: then by the time you get to places north of Danang there’s a chance that the weather might have improved. It might not be warm enough in the Northeast by then to enjoy the sun, but you never know.

The best beaches are in the south, especially at that time of year, because the further north you go the more likely it is that the weather will deteriorate.

If you really want to have time for the Northeast at the end of the trip, you could start the Classic route in Nha Trang – you can arrange to pick your bike up from there through the rental companies. Then you can ride north along the coast and then inland for nature and mountains. There is a lot of hiking etc around Phong Nha, too.

However, personally I would leave the northeast open as an option if you have the time, because there’s plenty to keep you busy on the Classic route already, and getting to the Northeast takes time, and the road conditions can be unpredictable. I would come back to Vietnam another time to ride the ‘real’ north 🙂

You will definitely meet other riders and travel buddies when you are on the road 🙂

Thanks a lot for your reply! Nha Trang pick up sounds like a good plan, also to avoid the highway. I will definately check out Phong Nha – and yes, maybe you are right not to want to squeeze too much out of one trip. I just love the mountains…

What a great informative blog you have, I have a question or two if you don’t mind answering them.

I have 18 days in Vietnam with my friend (not as long as I hoped as he has to go back to work) but I’m sure we will be back in the future. The classic route appeals to me the most which towns do you recommend to stay at along the way and much time do you think we should spend in each place to complete 15 days of riding. I should also add that we would be starting off in HCMC making our way to Hanoi.

Another thing thats on my mind is when we do activities, how would we keep our bags safe which would have our passports, cameras etc. However with the safety of the bike I’m not too worried about it as we would be chaining it up together and locking them.

The red pins on the Classic route map on this page mark some of the more interesting places to overnight on that route.

Regarding how long to stay in each place, bear in mind that the total distance of the Classic route is 2,770km, and if you only have 15 days to complete it then you will need to average almost 200km per day. So if you stop anywhere on route for more than one night you will have to make that up with one or two long riding days. Therefore, I suggest you either choose to ride every day, only staying one night in places along the route, or if you want to stay longer in places, perhaps consider only riding half the route and then putting your bike on the train for the second half.

When you stop by the side of the road for a swim or something, don’t leave you most valuable possessions on your bike – passport, money etc. Take them with you in a day pack, and it’s best not to leave your bike out of sight when you stop, unless there’s a proper parking lot, which there often is.

First off, thank you so much for all of your effort in creating this amazing website. This is exactly what I was looking for to feel prepared enough to do such a journey. Here are some questions I have for you (my apologies if they are repeats from earlier comments, I read through mostly off of them)

My boyfriend and I are planning to be in Vietnam near the end of May- mid June. We’re hoping to spend 3-4 weeks there. I’ve read your section on the weather in the different regions and I know we are going at a tricky time regarding the south. We definitely would like to see the whole of the country and it seems best that we start in Saigon and work our way up north where it will be spring– is that true?. The biggest dilemma we’re facing is deciding wether to motorbike our way from city-to-city all the way up or if we should rent motorbikes from hostels we stay at in the major cities/town and do local rides or some of the other loops you have posted. I know this question is more of a preference question but I’d love to hear your thoughts, as I’m sure there are pro’s and con’s to both. The major point’s we’ve been considering are:

-Time- the ability to spend more time in cities vs being on the road. We’ll be in Vietnam for a relatively long period of time, so if we did the Easy Rider we’d probably have more than enough time to spend a couple days in the major cities. I saw it’s about 150km/day for two weeks. I also saw that you can send your motorbike on the train. We were thinking if we needed to do that (due to time) we’d probably ride from HCM up to Hue (to cover the hai van pass) then either return the bikes in Hue to the renters (is that possible?) or send them up to Hanoi via train. If there is any part of the route to miss, which part would you recommend skipping? I also was wondering if we’d be getting a lot of rain in the south and it might be risky to be riding there.

-Cost. We haven’t quite figured this one out but I imagine renting bikes one-way for a long period of time would probably even out to renting motorbikes daily at hostels and the cost of train rides from city to city. Is this true?

– Safety/ Headaches of getting lost. I’ve motorbiked through parts of China and Thailand, but almost always had a local with me when we went on the more rural roads. I worry about break downs and getting lost. I’ve read there are a lot of places for bike repairs almost everywhere you go… are there some routes that are much easier to navigate or with more help than others? As I mentioned, we were thinking Easy Rider, but we’re also considering the Classic.

I know it’s not the ideal time to be traveling in Vietnam weather-wise, but are there many tourists traveling at this time? I’m wondering if I’d need to book hostels in advance or if we can play it by ear as we go.

Again, I know many of my questions are more subjective but I’d love to hear your experienced perspective.

May-June is quite a good time to travel the whole country – the weather should be pretty similar and pretty good across the nation: hot, humid and sunny with tropical downpours. So I don’t think it matters that much which way around you do your trip.

Riding the whole way you will get a real sense of Vietnam and how the country, people, food, and culture changes from region to region. And there’s also a sense of achievement when riding the length of the country. However, if you don’t feel like spending so much time on the road then it’s certainly possible to take public transportation between the major cities and then rent bikes to do shorter loops.

Yes, 150km a day is a good and very doable average and would allow you time to spend a couple of nights here and there in certain places along the route. Yes, you can rent the bike from Saigon and return it to Hue or Danang or Hanoi or some other places along the route – check with the rental companies: try contacting Dragon Bikes, Flamingo Travel, Tigit, Rent a Bike – they are all good, efficient services. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

If you send your bike on the train, remember that it usually takes between 2-5 days to arrive at its destination.

It would probably work out a little cheaper if you rented a bike for the duration of your stay rather than at each stop along the way.

There are repairs shops everywhere, even in remote areas you’re never that far away from a place (sửa xe means motorbike repair in Vietnamese).

Navigation for the Easy Rider and Classic isn’t too difficult. You should buy a local sim card when you get to Vietnam so that you will have Google Maps etc all the time and your current gps location. Sadly, Google Maps offline doesn’t really work in Vietnam, so if you want to follow the route maps from my website you’ll need to export my maps from Google and then upload them to Maps.me (click the three vertical dots next to the map title at the top left corner of any of my Google route maps, then click the option ‘Export to KML’, then upload that file to Maps.me). If you do this you should be able to follow my route maps offline and with your current gps location on the map.

You should be OK booking hotels as you go, unless you arrive in a popular tourist destination on a weekend or public holiday.

Tom, your website is AMAZING. Pure value, such high quality content here. Thank you so much!

I’m traveling to Saigon in February and want to take the Easy Rider trail to Hanoi! So excited for this trip. I was told that Dragon Bikes was a great place to rent bikes from in Saigon. Any tips or other vital information you could send my way would be appreciated.

Yes, Dragon Bikes are a good, efficient and reliable place to rent from – there are links to Dragon Bikes in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

In February, two things to remember are that the weather can be surprisingly cold and grey anywhere north of Danang, but not all the time, of course. And Tet Lunar New Year holiday (which is the middle of Feb in 2018, I think) can get extremely busy with domestic tourists.

I wonder, is it safe to leave my bike unaccompanied for stretches of time, such as when exploring waterfalls, going to bed, or going for swims and walks? Or should the bike be locked to something secure so no one can throw it into the back of a truck or something like that?

I also saw that you sometimes had written directions for your routes.
Are there written directions for the entire Easy Rider Route? And for a beginner like me what do you think the best way to follow the route is and not get lost, would it be using my phone and screen shots of the google maps map, or following written directions?

In most places where you stop there will be some kind of bike parking lot where you get a ticket for your bike (don’t lose the ticket) and someone will watch over it. But in cases where you stop by the side of the road for a swim or walk you can lock the front wheel of your bike (usually by turning the key all the way to the left in the ignition), or you can buy some kind of lock to take with you. But you shouldn’t really leave it out of your sight for too long.

There are detailed guides to certain sections of the Easy Rider route (click the motorbike symbols on the route map and then click the links within the map marker to go directly to those guides), but not a detailed guide to the entire route. You can follow the Easy Rider route by, as you say, taking screenshots and checking it against your GSP while on the road, or by exporting the route map from Google Maps to Maps.me (open the Easy Rider map, click the three vertical dots next to the map title in the top left corner, click the option ‘Export to KML’, then upload that file to Maps.me). You can also read more about maps etc in this article.

Thanks for this amazing Blog it’s really boost me in my planning, yo’re doing such a superb job.
I just shared it in a Maltese travel page 😉

I am planning to backpacking Vietnam from 8th February to 20th March so it counts like 40 days.
So as this is my first time as a solo traveler and in Vietnam, I have some questions to sort of.

1) Do you think I have time enough to make THE BEACH BUM & UNCLE HO’S ROAD as a round trip in 40 days plus staying few days in some of interested places? Or shall I make THE BIG ONE instead? I wish to cover as much as I can of the Country and I’am a good rider on motorbike so that is not an issue.

2) Do you recommend to start my journey from HCMC to HANOI and back of vice versa? This is regarding the weather issue also the Tet period.

3) It is possible to make some nights over in a tent or better if I sleep in a hostel for my safety matters?

4)Which are the best shops to by a good tested motorbike ready for a journey with less problems as possible ? And to be more easy for me to sell it back again without any problems please.

Yes, I think that 40 days is enough time to do both: either the Beach Bum one way and Uncle Ho’s Road the other, or the Big One. With 40 days you have enough time to be flexible so you don’t need to worry about it too much. Remember you can also put your bike on the train.

At that time of year, I recommend starting in HCMC first, because the weather can still be quite cold anywhere north of Hue during February, so the later you get to the north the more likely it is that the weather will be better.

Yes, you can camp along the way, but it’s probably not worth bringing all your camping gear with you if you’re only going to use it a few times. Instead, you can camp at some of the designated campgrounds that I mention in my guides where you can rent a tent, like the Ocean Road for example.

For motorbike rental take a look at the recommended companies listed in the right sidebar and bottom of this page (and all pages of my website). They are all good, reliable, efficient services which guarantee buy-back at the end of your trip. Try contacting Flamingo Travel, Dragon Bikes, Tigit, and Rent a Bike Vietnam. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Just wondering if you could offer some advice. We are going starting in Han oi, going to Hay Long Bay and then making our way down to Saigon, we want to see amazing views, the best cities and beach too, which route would you recommend for this, we are coming on 2nd january for 24 days but want to stop over at a few places for a couple of nights too.

If you want to see beaches and mountains with around 3 weeks on the road then you should consider the Classic, Beach Bum and Easy Rider routes. You can combing and mix them up if you want. And remember that at that time of year the weather is best south of Nha Trang. Anywhere north of Hue can be quite cold and bleak in January. So that’s something to bear in mind if you’re looking for warm weather and beaches.

Hi Tom! Just wanted to say this site has been amazing in my planning and appreciate all the work and effort you’ve put into it.

I’ve read that the ride from Nha Trang to Qui Nhom has some very beautiful spots, but also know that it routes through Hwy 1 at some parts. I’ve been told to avoid Hwy 1 so was curious how safe/unsafe that route would be. Any input would be super helpful.

Assuming I will be taking the coast up to Qui Nhom and then heading West, would you suggest going to Pleiku before Kon Tum? Or would it be alright to skip Pleiku.

I’m bringing my own motorcycle gear over along with my helmet that has a tinted visor. Would there be any reasons why a tinted visor wouldn’t be a good idea?

The coastal route between Nha Trang and Quy Nhon doesn’t go on Highway 1 all the way, as long as you follow the coastal route in the map from my Beach Bum route. From Dai Lanh you turn off Highway 1 all the way through Tuy Hoa to near Chi Thanh where you rejoin Highway 1 but it’s a particularly scenic section of Highway 1. Zoom in on the map to make sure you get the right roads.

Skipping Pleiku is fine. And a tinted visa is fine too, as long as it doesn’t get scratched easily.

I will drive from HCMC to Hanoi. I have 4 weeks for this. I’ll begin on 12 December. I can pitch a tent. Never drove a scooter! Want to see most interesting free places in Vietnam like caves, waterfalls, charming small cities. I heard Scenic route is very nice. What route can you suggest?
Second question. How can I transfer your exact route so it could navigate me in google maps on my smartphone? Can’t sort this out :/

All of the 5 routes on this page have caves, waterfalls, small towns etc. It just depends on your time-frame and if you want to be by the beach on in the mountains more. Perhaps you can combine the Beach Bum with some of the off-the-beaten-track sections of the Big One.

To get the routes onto your phone you need to export the maps to KML and then onto maps.me. You can do this by opening the tab in the top left corner of any of my Google Maps (where the three vertical dots are), then selecting Export to KML, then uploading that file to maps.me. That way you can follow your current gps position on any of the routes.

If you prefer mountains and you’re a first time rider I think Uncle Ho’s Road would be the best route. Also, I’ve written a full guide to the entire route here. Or you could try the Easy Rider which is specifically designed to be easily navigable.

The Scenic Route is good too, but there are some slightly more ‘difficult’ roads on it.

Hi Tom, thanks for all these writeups, really incredible collection of guides. I’m contemplating getting a bike to ride through the country, potentially on the beach bum itinerary you listed, and have some questions:

* All your itineraries are south-north, is there any specific reason other than you’re maybe based in the south?

* I would be nervous about theft, how do you go about choosing where to park and what not to avoid this? Do you run a chain lock through the front tire or something like that?

* is 18 days enough time to enjoy the beach bum tour without being constantly on the move? I’d like to at least take a break for a few days in Hoi An

* seems your links to bike shops are all rental options, maybe I’m paranoid but I get nervous about my deposit and whether I’ll get dinged for little stupid things at the end of the trip, vs. just buying a bike. In Thailand everywhere is notorious for trying to wring money out of tourists for “damage” that often was there to begin with

* any equipment you’d recommend bringing along for a relative beginning like gloves? I saw some other blogs saying bring a helmet but that seems a bit ridiculous, I’m travelling as light as possible with a 30L bag

Yes, you can ride any of the routes from north to south or vice-versa. Time of year is a consideration when choosing which way to do it – take a look at my Weather Guide for more details.

Most places – hotels, restaurants, beaches etc – have their own little parking lot. You usually receive a ticket for your bike and a security person will take care of it. But when stopping by the side of the road in remote areas you could lock the wheel if you feel nervous about leaving it unattended. In general it’s fine, but obviously don’t leave your bike out of sight for an extended period of time if there’s no one around to look after it.

The total distance of the Beach Bum is 2,050km. So 18 days is fine – you’d only need to average around 100km per day. But of course if you stop in Hoi An for a few days that will significantly change your necessary daily average. You’d need to ride at least 2 days over 200km in order to stay static in Hoi An for a few days and still complete the Beach Bum in 18 days.

The links to my recommended motorbike rental companies are all very efficient, professionally-run and highly rated. You don’t need to worry about being scammed in any way. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me. And, in the unlikely event that you do have a bad experience renting from them, please let me know.

You don’t need to bring a helmet – they’re available here, and rental bikes often give you a choice of helmets too. Gloves are only necessary if you are riding in the highlands during the winter months.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but on your Google maps for each route, is there a way to measure distances between points of interest (travel times and distances) to get a rough idea of where we will be along the route for each day? And what would you say would be the average time riding each day on the “Classic Route” around 3-4 hrs?

Thanks for all your help, this website has already helped me immensely preparing for my trip.

I don’t think you’d be able to get Google to tell you distances and times unless you redraw the route on another Google Map.

Riding time depends a quite a few different factors. But as a general rule, on good roads your average speed will be about 40-50km an hour, but that doesn’t include stops for photos, gas etc. So at a leisurely pace you can reckon on around 100km every 3 hours. 150km a day is a very nice, easy, doable daily average, but it’s also possible to do a lot more if you start at a decent time in the morning.

Hello,
Which month do you recommend to ride from Hanoi to Saigon? I have two options: 4th of December and 1st of february. December would be better for me, but if difference of joy is big I can ride in february.
Best Regards.

Well, both of those options the weather will be best in the south: once you get north of Danang you may find it gets colder and grayer, because the north gets a real winter. If you ride during February, you will probably overlap with the Tet Lunar New Year celebrations – this is very interesting but it’s not great for travel, because many businesses close and most of the nation goes on holiday so places become busy.

Came across your site tonight and I’ve spent longer than I’d care to admit scrolling through some of the trips you’ve done – there’s some great stuff here.

I’m planning on doing a trip in early December from Da Nang to Ha Noi. On the section of your ‘Classic’ route where it goes inland from Hue and up the Ho Chi Minh Road are there plenty of nha nghi/hotels? That’s the route I’d like to take but I just wanted to check that there are places to stay as it’s quite a long way from there to the red dot at Phong Nha.

Yes, there are places to stay – hotels and nha nghi – along the Ho Chi Minh Road. For much more detail take a lot at sections 4-8 of my Ho Chi Minh Road guide, which includes places to stay and stop along the way. The one section where there aren’t regular guest houses is the Western Ho Chi Minh Road between Khe Sanh and Phong Nha, but there is now a convenient small hotel right in the middle of that section in Long Son.

You could spend anything between 5-10 days between Danang and Hanoi, depending on how much riding you want to day each day and how much you want to stop along the way.

Quick question: For a new / inexperienced rider, which is the easiest / least tricky route that you would recommend? I’m planning to do this with a couple of friends, but I personally don’t ride and am planning to learn as much / as well as I can for a few days in Ho Chi Minh before heading out.

If you have any tips / tricks / contacts in Ho Chi Minh who might be able to give me a riding lesson or two, that would also be much appreciated!

Uncle Ho’s Road is probably the easiest to navigate and is relatively low of traffic-clogged roads, plus it’s the shortest in terms of distance. Another option is to take the Easy Rider.

Some of the recommended motorbike rental companies (see the right sidebar and bottom of this page) may be able to help you practice before you leave. Try contacting them. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Thanks for the suggestions! I did get in touch with the motorcycle companies and one of them offered to teach me (and waive the lesson fee if I rented from them) so that’s definitely helpful. Thanks so much!

Hi Tom
Great info and good work your doing , lived here for 6 yrs now but am going to ride down to Kien Giang from Danang with my dog would you sugest the HCM raod the best and quickest option also was thinking it willl take me 3 1/2 days riding to sgn , i know the riding conditions of Vn just wondering best option to go concidering i have my dog and really dont want to run the gauntlet of Highway 1 with the crazy buses trucks etc etc ,

cheers and hope to hear from you
Hoping to set of in 2 or 3 days from now
Lockie

First up, mad props for putting together probably the most detailed riding guide going around the interwebs at the moment. This thing has helped me in so many ways already. You sir, are a legend!

Me and some mates are looking at doing the “Classic” route for the 15-16 days we have in Viet, as it looks the most enjoyable. I’ve read through some of the other comments here in terms of timeframes and realise we may need to cover a few extra km’s to do it in this timeframe. So my question is if we are to do this route, is there a certain section we could skip/ride through or an earlier finishing point that might save us a bit of time? Anything you think we won’t be missing if we skip, really. We are riding Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh so were looking at the maps and thinking say, if we finished up at Nha Trang would we be missing anything from there, the rest of the way to H.C.M ??

Yes, I think that either finishing in Nha Trang or starting in Dong Hoi (for Phong Nha) would work. It also depends on the time of year you’re planning to ride the route, because of weather. For example, the north gets a real winter from around late November to February, while the south has good weather at that time of year. (See this Weather Guide for more info).

With either of those ‘short cuts’ you should have enough time to ride the route, but you’d still need to cover quite a lot of kms over several days in order to finish on time.

Thank you so much for the detailed routes! It helps soooo much. I’m hoping to do the big one and heading to Ninh Binh tomorrow but want to additionally include some of the many national parks along the way. For example, the ride from Ninh Bing to Dong Hoi or Hue is quite long. And I notice Pu Mat takes up quite a lot of space west of Vinh. Do you have any experience/info about this area? (other than the Kem Waterfall) Is driving that far west worth it?Everything I look up doesn’t really offer a lot of info. I also have camping stuff with me and would love to utilize it as I haven’t much in my trip yet. Is Bu Gia Map worth the ride out of the way? Have you been?

I can easily incorporate Bach Ma and Chu Yang into my trip but would love any extra info if you yourself have been there!
Thank you for this resource and for all your help!!!!!

It depends how much time you have and what the weather is like. The area around Kem Waterfall is very scenic and largely off the beaten path so if you have time I would recommend going there and exploring the wider area too, like Pu Mat National Park, for example. There’s not that much tourist development or infrastructure there yet, but ‘wild camping’ is great there, providing you do it sensibly, of course. Perhaps read some of the tips for ‘wild camping’ in Vietnam in this guide first.

There are many national parks in Vietnam, but personally I don’t think it’s worth putting aside the time for Bu Gia Map and Chu Yang – you will be riding through so many beautiful areas (especially on the Ho Chi Minh Road) that you will see and be in plenty of excellent natural landscapes without detours to specific national parks. However, I would recommend checking out Back Ma if you have the time.

Hey Tom this was an awesome article along with your webpage. I had a few questions. I’m hoping to have 18 days. I want to start from Hanoi and go to HCMC. I would love to follow the classic route. Do you think this gives me ample time?

I would love to explore cities along the way and don’t want to be overly rushed. Should I potential try to shorten the classic to make it more feasible with the time I have?

Also if I decide to go with the classic, what is a reasonable mile/km goal to set for a day?

I really want to see the cities you have label along the way and not just pass through them.

18 days is enough time to ride the Classic route, but how much time you’ll have to explore the cities along the way depends on your riding experience and stamina. For example, if you rode every day over the 18 days, you’d need to average around 150km per day. This is very doable and not particularly tiring or long in the saddle, but it’s still around 4 hours of (fairly leisurely) riding each day. Add to that a couple of days in a couple of cities and you’d need to cover around 200km per day in order to fit it all into 18 days. So from this you can start to get an idea of how your time might work out.

If you’d prefer to cut out some bits of the route in order to spend more time exploring the cities along the way, you could consider starting in Hue (most motorbike rental companies can arrange this) and ending in Phan Thiet, where you can put your bike on the train to Saigon (more details about that here).

Hi Tom, thanks for the awesome guide! Sounds very promising.
Thanks Jake for the questions you asked, we were wondering the same thing. Right now we are in Hanoi and getting prepared for our tour.
But i have another one: Tom, I was wondering if you have those routes as gps-files aswell, since your premade routes can not be navigated offline in google maps.

Yes, Google offline doesn’t work for my maps in Vietnam, but you can export my maps (export to KML option in the dialogue box at top right of my Google maps) to maps.me and follow them like that. I’m aware that this is an issue and am trying to create an app to address this, but that will take some time. For more about maps.me and other maps see this Map Guide.

I currently live in Shanghai China, and i’m planning to take the motorbike drive in late January. However, I am planning to go from Hanoi down to Saigon. I saw your routes, and thought that I could just follow it backwards down to Saigon. I want to take a trip to Ha Long Bay first for a few days before going to Hanoi, and I was wondering if you have any sources about finding a motorbike in the Hanoi area.

Yes, sure. There are lots of reliable motorbike rental companies in Hanoi. Take a look at the trusted rental companies recommended in the right sidebar and bottom of this page (and on every page of my website). Contact any of them and they can give you a quote. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

My wife and I are heading to Vietnam at the end of October 17. I ahve been trolling the internet looking for best routes and stumbled upon yours. WOW, I am impressed. The routes you have proposed ahve taken alot of the guess work out of for me and I truly approeciate that.
As motorcyles are not actually that great for locking your things in, what is it like when you see a spot that looks good for a bit of look. Is it advisable to carry all your gear with you or are there locals for a few dong will look after your gear? I am not looking forward to carrying my wifes back pack 🙁
Thanks again for a great web site.

Personally, I leave the bulk of my luggage strapped on the bike (it’s just clothes etc so nothing valuable) and I take my smaller day pack with me which has all my valuables in it. This works fine for me, but obviously you should try not to leave your motorbike and belongings unseen for too long. Most of the time you can keep it within sight anyway: for example, if you want to stop by a river for a swim, just leave the bike by the roadside so you can keep an eye on it while you’re in the river.

I got so excited about your website that I want to motorbike, but I don’t have any motorbiking experience.
Cycling I do everyday, scooters I have done, but not this. That having said…

I have about 14 days to travel between Saigon and Hanoi or the other way around (whatever you recommend).
I like the beach bum route, because it seems easier and safer for a first timer, but Uncle’s Ho’s Road seems amazing as well (again, whatever you recommend).
So, where should I start (Hanoi or Saigoin), which route is easier, what parts by motorbike and where/when to send my motorbike on the train?

I think, at this time of year, you should consider starting in Hanoi and finishing in Saigon. The weather should be pretty good at this time of year, but you may get quite a bit of rain in the central provinces.

If you’ve ridden a scooter before you should be OK riding in Vietnam, with the possible exception of the big cities, where the traffic is dense and chaotic – obviously you’ll need to take it slowly when you first start out in Hanoi, but once you’re a couple hours out of the city it’s much quieter.

14 days is fine but it’s not that long, so you’ll probably be riding every day. Uncle Ho’s Road is the shortest and most direct of these 5 routes and it’s easy to navigate so that’s a pretty good option. Or, if you want to mix some beach time in there, consider the Easy Rider or Beach Bum.

For bike rental and information check out the trusted companies listed in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Well, that would depend on which route you choose. If you decide to do one of the coastal routes, it’s quite easy to put your bike on the train from Phan Thiet (Mui Ne) to Saigon. Or for any of the routes you could start in Dong Hoi and ride up to meet the Ho Chi Minh Road at Phong Nha and start the route from there. Some of the bike rental companies should be able to arrange for you to pick up the bike in, for example, Dong Hoi if you contact them in advance. Another option is to start you trip in Danang, Hoi An or Hue, because all the rental companies have shops there.

If you do plan to put your bike on the train for a section of the route remember that your bike doesn’t travel on the same train as you do and usually takes at least two days to arrive at its destination (with the exception of Phan Thiet to Saigon) – see this guide for more details.

Thank you so much for publishing these helpful guides. Nice to see someone with in-depth knowledge sharing it through such detailed articles.

I have a few questions:

(1) If I plan to do the classic route at the beginning of February, does it much matter if I start in HCMC or Hanoi? I plan to complete the route in about 15-16 days so not sure if it matters, but my preference is for starting in Hanoi (but modified as noted below due to time constraints).

(2) Am I missing much by taking a train/plane to Dong Hoi then traveling via motorbike to Phong Nha and starting the classic route there? I understand you mentioned that the northern parts of the route are the most spectacular, so just want to make sure I’m not missing anything unique by starting out there.

(3) My girlfriend and I have never driven motorbikes so we plan to hire a tour guide + one other driver to drive us (each of us driving pilon behind a driver). Do you think this is smart or do you think we can learn quickly on the road going slowly? The tour guide is pretty pricey compared to doing it ourselves, but we’re not sure it’s safe to start our motorbiking experience on the roads of Vietnam.

(4) When doing the classic route, is it ok to skip the one leg between A Luoi and Thanh My on the Golden Loop or should we take that leg and then backtrack? I noticed all other parts of the Golden Loop are covered by the classic route which is why I ask.

(5) Of all the routes you mentioned, do you think the classic route is the best for first time visitors to Vietnam?

(6) Are the red markers indicating the spots where one should rest for at least a night?

Yes, it’s fine to go from Hanoi to Saigon, and starting in Dong Hoi is also fine.

The driving depends on you really – whichever you feel safest and more confident doing. Because you’ll be starting the route in Dong Hoi you won’t be confronted with big city traffic immediately and this is a very good thing. Starting in Dong Hoi means a fairly gentle introduction to riding in Vietnam’s towns and then straight into the mountains on quieter roads. But Vietnam’s roads are dangerous and obviously you must be extremely careful. But the feeling of independence and freedom when self-riding these loops is unbeatable.

Yes, you could skip A Luoi to Thanh My so you don’t have to backtrack, or you could skip the Hai Van Pass instead: it depends if you’d rather ride a mountains pass (A Luoi to Thanh My) or a coastal pass (the Hai Van Pass).

Yes, the Classic is good for first time visitors, or you could also choose the Easy Rider. You have enough time with 15-16 days but not loads of time, so you will probably be riding almost every day.

The red pins mark major towns or places of interest and are also possible overnight stops.

Awesome write up. I’m just reading through your blog and reminiscing about my time in Vietnam. Not sure if it is just me, but on Chrome, the maps appear to be out of order. Also, the Easy Rider map doesn’t show up at all on the page. Perhaps you want to check this out, to see if theres a glitch. Thanks so much for your awesome write up ands guides… If there is any way that I can join you and help run the site/ learn from you, please, please let me know. I want to be involved in anyways possible. Eager to share my online/media talents, writing skills, and passion for Vietnamese culture and travel/ living… thanks, Tom

Thanks for your kind words. And thanks for letting me know about the glitches – I will check them out. I get help for a couple of people on the tech side of things, but I do lack knowledge when it comes to that, so I reply on readers to write in with updates or letting me know if they’re having problems with the site in any way.

Hi Tom,
Are there any routes you might be able to recommend that also include Cambodia and Laos? I arrive in HCMC in 3 weeks and plan to spend up to 2 months potentially riding around Indochina. I’m wondering if perhaps an initial side venture across to Cambodia and back to begin might be worthwhile, then your ‘Classic’ route, perhaps finishing with some northern Vietnam and Laos add-on…. any thoughts or suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.
Love your site and helpfulness mate.
Ben

Tom, first of all, great guide! You’ve created a wealth of information here that has become a key resource as I plan my upcoming Vietnam motorcycle tour. Thank you.
Do you have a guide on your preferred safety gear for the climate (helmet, boots, gloves), rain gear recommendations, and other essentials you like to have in your kit for long rides? It would be great to hear what your experience has taught.

Yes, it’s a good idea, and it’s something I’ve been meaning to write up for a while, but unfortunately I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I’ve written about climate and weather here, so you can use that to get an idea of the kind of clothes you’ll need to pack according to different regions and different times of year.

Regards riding gear, many ‘serious’ riders from abroad come to Vietnam with all the ‘serious’ gear but end up shedding it all once they get here, because conditions are usually (but certainly not always) so hot and humid. A good helmet and sunglasses are important. Everything else is kind of personal – in hot, lowland areas I ride in flip-flops, shorts, and sleeveless T-shirt, but that’s not for everyone, of course, and I don’t ride particularly fast or on a high-powered bike. Depending on the time of year, the highlands can get surprisingly cold, making it essential to have at least some cold weather gear.

Other bits and pieces of this kind of information can be found in my Resources Archive.

Hi there, im currently in the north after following many of your routes and guideds and clocking up nearly 2000km we are on our way back to hanoi to head on a southern route, after seeing many mountains we are going to hit the beach bum route. I am just wondering if you can recommend any towns to stay to break the hanoi – phung na, hoi an – quy nhon sections up.
Liam

First of all thanks for all the work you put in and all the detailed information you share! I’m currently riding your classic tour and love it so far!!

I’m currently in quy nhon and am going to make my way up to hoi an via kon tum but one question, do you have any advixe how to find suitable hotels/hostels/other places to stay the night on your route away from the big cities (red marks)? I have no idea how to do it and the ride from quy nhon to kon tum is a bit to long for my taste to do on one day

Away from the bigger towns you can look out for signs saying ‘nhà nghỉ’ which means ‘local guest house’ in Vietnamese. Once you start looking, you’ll see them very regularly. I’ve written an article all about nhà nghỉ here.

Thanks for the detailed routes! I was thinking of doing the big one in Jan/Feb of 2018 but from Hanoi to Saigon. Whats with the huge time differences? Would 3 weeks be riding everyday compared to 6 weeks with days off at certain points?

Yes, that’s right. And it also depends on your riding experience and endurance for sitting in the saddle for hours each day. 3 weeks is a pretty short amount of time to ride The Big One and you’d be on the move almost every day, but 6 weeks would give you enough time to stop for a day or two every now and then.

Three weeks should be enough to complete the Classic route. You’d only need to average less than 150km per day, so that is very doable. But, of course, every time you stop somewhere for a day and night then you will have to make up the distance the next day.

There are lots of great places to stop along this route. It depends if you prefer established traveller destinations or less visited areas. Places like Mui Ne, Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue and Ninh Binh are very popular with all types of travellers – they are interesting, beautiful places with lots of accommodation, things to see, and opportunities to meet other travellers. However, if you prefer less visited places, consider taking your time along the coast north of Nha Trang up to Quy Nhon – these coast roads are very scenic and there are lots of good beaches – click the links inside the map pins on the Classic route map above for more details. After that, the Western Ho Chi Minh Road from Khe Sanh to Phong Nha is stunning so take your time on that too.

At night, your hotel will take care of it. During the day if you stop at a cafe or a public beach there will be guards to look after it – they give you a ticket. Parking lot in Vietnamese is ‘giữ xe’. But when you stop at a random location, such as an empty beach, there will be no one there to guard your bike – make sure you don’t let it out of your sight.

I’m loving these scenic routes. Great post. My friend and I are arriving in Hanoi or Ho Chi Min this weekend. My question is which route do you recommend taking in terms of north to south (Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh) or south to north (Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi)? What are the positives and negatives of each of these 2 directions? We are looking to get the Honda XR 150 from Tigit or Fung.

You can ride any of these routes in either direction. Things to bear in mind when choosing whether to ride south-north or north-south are weather, time of year, and your preference of mountains or beach. At this time of year, the weather is pretty similar all over Vietnam – sunny, hot, humid, tropical downpours – so that’s not going to be an issue for you. As a very general rule: the northern half is all about the mountains; the southern half is all about the beaches. So if you have a preference between those, that should be able to inform your decision: for example, do you want beaches at the beginning or end of your ride.

Hi Tom, I am really enjoying reading gthrouhallthe parts of your extensive website. At the moment I am in Quang Ngai teaching. I finish here early August and plan to take part of your big One route on. I have a Honda SuperCub 50cc. Your advise: will it be enough to take me around most places in Vietnam? What parts do I need to be wary of? I would like to go as far as Ha Giang……

Technically, a Honda Cub in good condition could do the route, but it would be a massive strain on the bike and it would be very slow and noisy going up the steep hills, not to mention a little uncomfortable. So, if possible, I would try to arrange a different bike for the trip: any ‘normal’ bike is OK – Honda Wave etc.

Hi Tom,
thank you so much for this amazing guide! Me and my girlfriend are planning a motorbike trip from Hanoi to Saigon, and i was wondering if you know a good place where to buy a motorbike and what i should check before to buy, as well as what kind of documents i need.
Cheers!!

For buying bikes I recommend using the trusted and reputable companies listed on my website, rather than just buying a bike from someone online. For example, you can buy your motorbike from Rent a Bike Vietnam, Tigit Motorbikes, or Style Motorbikes in Hanoi and then return it to them in Saigon and they will guarantee buying it back. There are links to all three of those companies in the right sidebar and bottom of all my posts and pages. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Hello,
At first I would like to thank you for your blog and the work you put on.
I plans to arrive in Vietnam at the beginning of January for 25 days (where I have an evening out on the 25th of the afternoon in Saigon)
I plan to travel from Hanoi to Saigon with a classic route supplemented with halong bay (possibly shortened) and additionally when I get to Saigon on a trip to Phu Quac island (If I stay at least 5 days to fly (I assume 7 days))
How do you think this is real assumption? Is it better to drive to Saigon and then sell motorbikes and take public transportation to the island?
I think I’ll be driving every day
what do You think about it?

Yes, if you want to ride the Classic route and visit Halong Bay and go to Phu Quoc in 25 days then you will most probably be riding every day. I recommend flying between Saigon and Phu Quoc to save time – there are lots of flights every day and prices are quite low because of competition – try Vietjet and Jetstar.

For Halong Bay it might be better just to do a day/night tour from Hanoi instead, then start your motorbike trip after that from Hanoi.

I also recommend getting your motorbike from one of the reputable rental companies in Hanoi: Rent a Bike Vietnam, Tigit Motorbikes, and Style Motorbikes. If you do this you can give the bike back to them when you get to Saigon – it’s very convenient. There are links to all three rental companies in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages.

Thanks for the reply.
This is a preliminary plan, I do not know if on the way will not be less in which I want to be longer.
The idea of ​​Phu Quoc is an alternative if I arrived in Saigon 6-7 days before leaving for Vietnam. Then I would take a two day break for a full relaxation by drinking coconut water and mentioning a trip to Vietnam.

In the first option I wanted to buy honde Win very much but after reading reviews many people advise and recommend to rent honda Detech 120 cc for about $ 200 per month (I was recommended to Style Motorbikes) . Like you write in Hanoi and give Ho Chi Min.
I also wonder about the option of renting a second motor in Ho Chi Min and returning to the island.
But it’s just such a supplement, as I will be 2-3 days free is the only way to see the delta of mekong.

I am an active traveler, do not like long breaks. In addition, I take a tent to sleep sleepers if I had a night on the road.
I wonder about the daily budget of about $ 20-25, for fuel, food, accommodation and possible repairs. Do you think it will be enough?

After that your blog is such a mine of knowledge that probably somewhere on my questions is hidden answer

Hey Tom,
Thank you so much for this. This is really useful I am completely following your maps for the journey I am going to start in a couple of days. 😀
However, I needed your opinions on one thing. What places/cities/routes would you recommend during about 500km journey between Dong Hoi and Hanoi for taking rest for a night or to break down the journey into a couple of shorter ones?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
VV

There are a few convenient places to break the journey between Dong Hoi and Hanoi. First of all, make sure you take the inland Ho Chi Minh Road and not the coastal Highway QL1A. On the Ho Chi Minh Road between Phong Nha and Hanoi there are many places to stay for a night and break the journey – take a look at sections 6, 7, and 8 of this guide for all the information you need.

The most impressive stretch of coast on the Beach Bum route is between Saigon-Phan Thiet-Phan Rang-Cam Ranh-Nha Trang-Quy Nhon. These are all connected by fabulous ocean roads passing great beaches. Click on the relevant map markers on my Beach Bum route map and then click the links to my details guides to those sections of the route.

If I were trying to do the Beach Bum route in 2 weeks, how far would be realistic and best to travel each day? Do you have any suggestions on what towns I should stop in for overnight, or any that I should stay in for a day or two?

How far you travel each day depends on your motorbiking experience and how much you want/need to stop or rest along the way. In general, the roads are all pretty good on the Beach Bum route so you should easily cover 100-150km per day with lots of time to stop and swim and sight-see etc. Any distance between 200-350km is quite a long (and tiring) distance to cover in a day.

For interesting destinations to stop along the way take a look at the links to my detailed guides to the sections of road that I mentioned in my previous comment – there’s lots of information in those guides about all the ocean road between Saigon and Nha Trang in particular.

Wow, now that I click on the details, I see how awesome your site really is!

My travel plans have changes a little and now I only have 8 days in Vietnam. I am thinking I will ride either from Hanoi –> Da Nang or HCM –> Da Nang and am deciding between the two. I am wondering which of these two options you would suggest for someone visiting Vietnam for the first time? I am leaning towards Hanoi –> Da Nang because the Limestone Loop looks spectacular.

It depends what time of year you are planning to travel and if you prefer mountains or beaches: If you are travelling between October and February you may find that the route from Hanoi to Danang is subject to bad weather, but Danang to Saigon the weather should be better; and if you prefer mountains then Hanoi to Danang is better, but if you prefer beaches then Danang to Saigon is better.

As far as I know the Hoa Lu border is open, but I don’t recognize the name of the other one you mention. I’m not sure how easy or not it will be to take your bikes across the borders, but the route you’ll take once in Vietnam will be QL14 and QL15 which is the Ho Chi Minh Road – it’s in good condition and scenic. 15 days is plenty of time.

Weather should be OK, but you will get some rain too.

For more information about border crossings try searching the Vietnam Back Roads Facebook book page.

First of all, what a wonderful blog! It helped me a lot with the planning of the trip 🙂
I will go to Vietnam in late September, early October.
I’ll fly to Hanoi, and from there i will go to Saigon (The Big Route with probably some detours)
I was wondering if i should go to Sa Pa (north of Hanoi). It is a detour of 300km, but i don’t know if it’s the correct time to go to the north in october.

Yes, September and October is a good time to be in the north in general, so depending on how much time you have in Vietnam, I would recommend taking a trip up north – perhaps following one or more of my Northern Routes.

Remember that you can put your motorbikes on the train from/to Hanoi and Lao Cai (Sapa) – that way you won’t have to ride all the way there and back again. If you plan to ride in the northeast, be aware that some of the roads, particularly along the Chinese border near Ban Gioc Waterfall, are often in bad condition.

Im going to be landing in Saigon in July and plan on traveling up to Hanoi within about 2.5-3 weeks. A few questions:

1) I’ve never really driven a motorbike before (I’ve driven a moped if that helps) but Im a pretty fast learner. Im going to be going with my girlfriend as well, and plan on sticking her on the bike with me. What would you say on a scale from 1-10 is the level of danger in this situation? And is there any route safer than the others?

2) If we only have about 17-21 days, would that mean only staying in one place per day, and having to ride everyday? Or would we be able to stick around in a certain place for a few days.

3) Lastly, if we plan on doing lets say half the trip by bike, and the other half by quicker means of transport, would any of the following be feasible (in your opinion): to start driving from Saigon up until about Hoi An and sell my bike there, taking train/bus etc from Saigon to Hoi An and buy a motorbike in Hoi An and bike all the way up to Hanoi and sell in Hanoi, or neither?

Most ‘motorbikes’ here are more like scooters – either automatic or semi-automatics – so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting used to that. The problem will probably be dealing with the traffic and lack of ‘riding discipline’ in the big cities – if you’re not used to Vietnamese traffic this may come as a shock. However, once you are out of the city there’s very little traffic indeed. Also, all my routes try to stay off busy main roads as much as possible, but of course they can’t always be avoided. I can’t give you a danger level on a scale of 1-10, but ride carefully and sensibly and you should be absolutely fine.

3 weeks is a pretty good amount of time to have. Whether you have time to spend more than one day in some places will depend of how much riding you want to do each day: some people prefer to ride long distances (200-300km upwards) and then stay a couple nights somewhere, but other people prefer riding shorter distances (100-150km) each day and just staying one night in most places. Average riding speeds in Vietnam (depending on the roads, of course) are about 40-60km per hour. With 3 weeks it’s probably best to ride each day for a few days and then stop for two days in one place, then repeat this pattern for each of your 3 weeks.

Yes, you can do either of those options. However, instead of buying a random bike, it’s much easier, more reliable, and pretty much the same price to buy/rent a bike from one of the reputable rental companies. The following companies are all excellent and offer pick up and drop off in Saigon, Danang (Hoi An), and Hanoi: Tigit Motorbikes, Rent a Bike Vietnam, and Style Motorbikes – there are links to all three of them in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

Hey Tom,
wow, this comment section is exploding! 🙂 More greetings from “Life’s a Beach” just south of Quy Nhon – what a gem! Took the wooden bridge mentioned in another comment to get back on 1A and then 1D after a visit of Ghen Da Dia – 2000 D for bicycles, great option to avoid some kms – and also fun: )
Thinking about cutting inland from here before getting back on the coast for Hoi An like you suggest in most route options. I just wondered: Can you tell me for what reason you go north for quite a bit after Quy Nhon and then west instead of taking the seemingly more straightforward connection, QL19 from here to Pleiku?
Just the nicer road? Or anything on the coast to check out that I’m missing? I’m on the bicycle, so especially with all those climbs, looking to avoid all unnecessary detours 🙂
Thanks for taking the time!
Rike

The reason I go north from Quy Nhon is that it’s a good, long stretch of coastal back roads leading all the way from Quy Nhon to Tam Quan. Unfortunately, after that you have to join Highway 1 for a bit until turning off due west for Ba To and continuing up to Kon Tum (which is also a very scenic road).

But sure you could just take QL19 up to Pleiku instead. Either way you’re going to be doing quite a lot of climbing! 🙂

Another route you might be interested in joining in this area is the Road East of the Long Mountains – fantastic scenery, very light traffic, and good road conditions.

One last question for you on this stretch, if you don’t mind, Tom: Just wondering why you chose to go east to Hoi An after Thanh My – to enjoy the HCMH as long as possible? Would the Champa temples further south be worth passing by though? Your jungle temple pic looks tempting, too!

I made it up to Ko Tum, the 19 was in a rather poor conditions with massive potholes in some stretches, absolutely stellar in others. Lots of truck traffic all the way. I turned of after

Awesome post! Question for you. My friend and I will have ~3-4 weeks in Vietnam in mid-July/early-August and I was wondering whether motorbiking from HCMC to Hanoi would still be doable/safe/fun during the rainy season? Would you recommend the Classic route? Thanks for all the great info!

Yes, the Classic route in July-August is absolutely fine – weather conditions are pretty similar throughout the country at that time of year: hot and humid with tropical downpours. So, apart from occasional heavy rain, you shouldn’t have any problems riding then.

Hey Tom, I’m at “Life’s a Beach” now as I head North, I’m one of the many many people here who are getting great value out of your route guides, can’t thank you enough!

It seems you haven’t published a more detailed guide on the area between the Hon Gom Sandbar and around Hoi An, so I thought I’d share my thoughts.

https://goo.gl/maps/t4CLaEHzKu32 is a little wooden bridge that I saw off to the side following your route, and crossed just for fun. They charged me a 3,000 Dong toll (each way…) and there was a sign suggesting 1,000 might have been more appropriate. I can’t vouch for the quality of the roads to get there from your route (and cutting out the QL1A bridge), but this was a treat and well worth checking out to consider putting your suggested route over it next time you’re in the area.

Thanks for the tip. Yes, you’re right, I haven’t written a detailed guide to that coastal area, although I’ve been planning to for a while now. I wasn’t allowed to cross that bridge last time I was there, so it’s great to hear that it’s possible now. I’ll definitely check it out next time I’m there.

Yes, that’s the problem with riding from Hanoi to Hai Phong – it’s an industrial belt so unless you take a really circuitous route it’s not going to be a beautiful ride. As far as I know bikes can’t take the new expressway on QL5B, because it’s vehicles only. AH14 is the old main artery between the two cities but, now that the new expressway has taken some of the load off it, this is probably a better option.

Follow up question, will the ferrys from Ben Binh in Hai Phong to the south of Cat Ba Island take motorbikes, or is the best option Dinh Vu to Cat Hai Island, then the second ferry the rest of the way to the Northwest of Cat Ba Island?

There’s now a road bridge between Hai Phong and Cat Hai Island. I don’t have up to date information about putting bikes on the boats because I haven’t done it for a long time. But there used to be two types of boats: fast passenger boats, and slower car ferries.

First of all, as I told you via messenger your blog is an absolute legend. I am glad I found it myself before I realised you’re recommended in LP guide too, congrats! We’re cruising through Vietnam using your tips n tricks and we’re planning our route everyday using your maps (mix of classic and beach bum). We do not take a lot of organised trips and people we meet usually speak little or no English so I have several questions to ask and maybe we get answer here from you or one of readers. So…
1. What on earth are all these huge huge nets on stilts on rivers?
2. What’s up with all these abandoned/empty hotels by the sea some 7km south of Vinh Moc tunnels? There’s like 2 completely abandoned resorts and 5 maybe 6 still operation but empty hotels here. Looks a bit post-apocalyptic.
3. Follow up question. Roadside hotels/motels that cost 200-250k with breakfast and are almost empty – how do they survive?
4. Who is eating frogs/crocs/snakes/lizards? Is it just prank food for tourists commonly found in big asian cities? Beijing and Bangkok are full of crickets/scorpions/bugs and other theoretically edible stuff. Or is it for locals too? Because we never come across any place serving let’s say snake or lizard unless it’s an eatery designed for tourists. We’ve not found dog meat yet but I guess we’re not north enough yet (Phong Nha tonight).
5. Is there a reason why left lane is slower than middle or second from left? Slow trucks almost always take left lane and buses and other trucks must take over from the right.

The huge nets are for fishing – as far as I understand the nets are submerged during high tide and then, when the tide goes back out, the fish get caught in the net – it’s low maintenance fishing 🙂

Loads of big projects, like resorts, get started but never finish because the money runs out or they hit some official or bureaucratic problem which leads to the ‘hotel shells’ that you’re seeing.

Most of the hotels outside of major tourist areas are empty during the week, but they make all their money on the weekends and public holidays from domestic tourism, which is huge at the moment.

Frogs, snakes, and dog etc are all widely and regularly eaten by many Vietnamese. Dog is becoming an ever more complicated issue in Vietnam, but there are dog meat restaurants all over the country, especially the north. The words in Vietnamese are thịt chó or cầy tơ. Cat is common too in the north. It’s not a tourist thing.

I think trucks are officially supposed to take the middle lane, but they only do so if they know that a particular stretch of road is watched by police. However, the discipline of truck drivers has improved over the last couple of years.

Thank you very much for your reply! This does answer my questions, cheers!
I’m still wondering about these nets, sometimes they are a good few meters above water level – tides wouldn’t be so high would they? I still need to take a pic of one of these bad boys and post link here so we’re sure we talk about same thing;)

Why is dog eating an issue? Is it not quite legal, or frowned upon or?

Just wanted to start off by saying this site is amazing and appreciate all the work and effort you’ve put in. We’ll be going back to Nam next week and this will be the first time outside of the south. We are planning to do a slightly modified (adding Da Lat) Beach Bum route from the north to south and wonder if I was being overly ambitious about our schedule/timing. Currently we land 03/02 (from the states) and need to be in Saigon by 03/18. To save some time we figured we’d take the night train from Hanoi to Dong Hoi since it seems like the longest stretch (503km) without anything significant in between (planning on going to Phong Nha Caves from Dong Hoi). Just a few questions if you don’t mind

Are we going to miss anything worthwhile by taking the train instead of riding to Dong Hoi?
What about Sapa and Ha Long Bay? From reading around March wasn’t the best month to go experience these spots in addition to the 2-3 needed for each
Is 16 days a stretch to make it down to Saigon? We are currently estimating 40km/hr average?
Besides the major cities is there anything else we should check out?
Currently planned:
Hanoi
Dong Hoi
Hue
Hoi An
Quy Nhon
Nha Trang
Da Lat
Mui Ne
Saigon
Anything we should just skip in general? Added Quy Nhon there since Hoi An to Nha Trang was going to be another 500km ride.

Any advice, recommendations, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for all your time and keep up the great work!

I think it’s a good idea, given your time frame, to take the train from Hanoi to Dong Hoi, and also to skip Sapa and Halong Bay, which, although still very scenic, are far too busy these days.

After that, your itinerary looks fine to me: 16 days in enough time to do it in, considering you have travelling and riding experience in Vietnam already, and your estimate of 40km per hour is also spot on. It’s also a good idea to stop in Quy Nhon because that’s a great place.

You might consider going from Phong Nha to Hue via the Western Ho Chi Minh Road (Phong Nha to Khe Sanh to A Luoi and down to Hue on Road QL49) instead of along the coast, because this is one of the best rides in Vietnam. You’d need to allow 2 days to ride Phong Nha to Hue via this route.

Hi Tom, I am currently cycling around Vietnam and have been for the last six months. I’ve done the Delta and followed your route for camping the Ocean road and also the HCM route from Pleiku to Danang. Your info has been most helpful and I thank you.
Today I shall cycle into Hanoi and I am thinking about exploring the mountains to the NE and NW of Hanoi again using your routes as a guide. How doable do you think it is on bicycle? How do the climbs compare with Hai Van Pass and the two passes from Qui Nhon to Pleiku, plus the climb from Mai Chau to Hoa Binh ?
Cheers for any useful info you can give me.
Adam

Riding the northern routes by bicycle would be very challenging but also very rewarding. Some of the passes are very steep and long – comparable or more so than the other passes you mentioned in the south.

But the scenery is superb so, if you have time and are willing to put the effort in, then I’d definitely recommend you try it out.

Cool, my biggest worry is not so much the climb but as the availability of food and lodging, as a climb can nearly always be walked and bicycles were originally called push bikes. I have camping gear but would rather only use as an emergency.
Thanks for your reply,
Cheers
Adam

Hi tom, love the work keep it up brother! I’ve travelled vietnam before and done biking in parts as well but never the whole thing. i plan on doing so this summer and i was just wondering what the policing is like? what are my chances of getting caught illegally and can you just bribe the police? and lastly would you recommend starting from south to north or north to south or is it the same experience? looking forward to heading back from you, Peace.

Which way you do it depends on the time of year, because of the different weather conditions in the north and south of the country. However, if you’re travelling during the summer, the weather is pretty good and pretty similar nationwide: hot, sunny, and humid, with tropical storms. Another factor that might help you make your decision is that, in general, the north is more about the mountains and the south is more about the beaches.

The legal side of things is a famously grey area. The bottom line, for now at least, is that the vast majority of foreigners riding bikes in Vietnam do not have a local license. Police do sometimes stop foreigners, but usually you will just have to pay a standard ‘fine’ of around $10. You could also ask the rental company or shop where you get your motorbike if they have any more advice about this.

There was talk about that, but ultimately I don’t think anyone (including the traffic police) really know what the situation is. So the ‘fine’ is still the easiest way. Remember to be particularly careful around Mui Ne – take the alternative route to avoid the police – more here.

I think it’s more for travel insurance purposes than actual law enforce encounters.

With that said, you wouldn’t be familiar with any travel insurance coverages that would cover licensed motorcycling? I know worldnomads do but after reading 10+ pages of negative reviews on their claim process I am very hesitant to throw money their way

Yes, insurance is an issue – it’ll be difficult to find anyone that’ll insure you without a license, although I think you can get cover up to 125cc bike if you shop around and pay a premium for it. But I don’t know a specific company though.

Thank you so much for the fantastic guides!!!
I’ve settled on the Classic route and am in Da Lat right now, but have a few clarifying questions:
When do you think is the best time to check out the three beaches between Nha Trang and Quy Nhon? Can they be done while driving to Quy Nhon?
The route to Hue to Phong Nha looks really long, and the route from Phong Nha to Ninh Binh looks near impossible to complete in one day– how long do you think these drives would take? Is it necessary to find a place to sleep between Phong Nha and Ninh Binh?
Thank you again– I’m really excited being able to do this fantastic route you’ve shared here!

Yes, the beaches between Nha Trang and Quy Nhon are all possible to visit while riding to Quy Nhon. Note that the red markers on the map do not necessarily represent each day on the road: they simply mark major settlements or places of interest along the way. The other map markers – like the beaches, for example – contain links to my guides to that specific place or region.

Therefore the route from Hue to Phong Nha is not intended to be completed in one day: you could stay a night in A Luoi or Khe Sanh along the way, for example. Likewise, from Phong Nha to Ninh Binh isn’t intended for one day: you could spend at least one night along the way. For more details about the ride and places to stay along the way on the Ho Chi Minh Road, take a look at sections 4 to 8 of this guide.

THANK YOU so much for this detailed maps and information!!
I can’t decide which route to take, the first one or the last one.

We are landing in 26th of January in Saigon.
We booked a hotel in there, also in DaLat (28th).
Planning driving from Saigon to DaLat to all the beach road.
We only booked a hostel in Phong Nha (6th of February) because we want to do the cave treks, and then booked a hotel in Hanoi (11th).
We have a flight from Hanoi in the 15th of February.

Which route will be the best? You think we will be able to do it withing 20 days overall?

Love reading your website! My husband and I are planning a trip to Vietnam (south to north) in February. He wants to rent a motorcycle from Hoi An to Hue for part of our trip, what would be the best company to rent from? Motorvina has good reviews online, thoughts?? He’s an expirenced rider here in the US. Also can you take a look at our itinerary and let us know what you think of it, if it’s too much or tiring to do in little time…

Yes, it’s quite a busy schedule, but it’s doable if you book all your accommodation and transport in advance – then you won’t need to waste time sorting it out and worrying about it while you’re there.

I’ve never used Motorvina so I can’t vouch for them, but I have had very good experiences using either Rent a Bike Vietnam or Tigit Motorbikes. They both have offices in Danang and can arrange pick up/drop off in Hoi An/Hue. There are links to both companies in the right sidebar and bottom of all my pages. You can mention Vietnam Coracle if you like, they know me.

In general, it’s pretty good, especially in coastal areas. In some mountainous areas you may not get reception and the Western Ho Chi Minh Road is very isolated at times. But on the whole using Google Maps is fine. It’s a good idea to take a decent map as well, though. Try the Travel Map of Vietnam, it’s good and updated every year.

It’s awesome that you give us all this information.
I have already read a bunch of your articles to make some decisions.
But i still have some doubts.
I’m going with 4 girlfriends (we are portuguese) to Vietnam from February 25 to March 11.
We arrive at Hanoi and we have to departure from Ho Chi Minh.
We are planning the trip and we are thinking about: stay 2 days in Hanoi, go to Sapa (a friend told me about the night train), then Halong Bay (i know its not the perfect weather in the North but we have to go to Halong BaY!!) – maybe a tour of 2 days and one night; then go down to Hoi An (everybody talks very good about Hoi An); then we were thinking about the Pongour Waterfalls, then Con Dao for 2 or 3 days by plane probably from Ho Chi Minh or some city around (i read your article about Con Dao and Pho Quoc and i think Con Dao is more our thing because of the WOW factor!), and then end at Ho Chi Minh, spend there 2 days and come back. What do you think? Is it surrealistic for a 2 weeks trip? Is that somewhere awesome that is missing? I’m sure there are a lot, but one or two that you think is mandatory maybe! We are not going by motorbike, just bus, train or plane. Motorbike in Con Dao and maybe if we stop on our way down in Ninh Binh (i heard its very beautiful ride in this area). What do you think?

Yes, that’s a good itinerary. But it’s a bit busy. You should cut out Pongour Waterfall to save you some time. Also, if you want to stick rigidly to your plan, try to book your transport before you get to Vietnam, because that will save you time and effort once you are here.

Con Dao in March should be OK for weather. Remember that it’s a very quiet place. If you want beach bars etc then you will prefer Phu Quoc. But both are nice in their own way.

Yes, that aspect of Google Maps is not available in Vietnam right now, so there’s nothing I can do about that. I am working on a Vietnam Coracle map app that would address this, but it is a long way off. So, for now, you can try to export my Google Maps to maps.me and then you should be able to follow them with gps.

Thanks for making your maps exportable – I like to have the terrain base map, plus add any other bits I fancy. I’ve now got some of your maps ready to go for tomorrows trip, though I can’t help getting the feeling that I’m funimentally cheating doing this. The experience comes from getting lost and figuring out how to get by anyway.

The part of the Ho Chi Minh Road with no gas stations is the Western Ho Chi Minh Road between Khe Sanh and Phong Nha – go to the relevant section (Section 5) on my complete guide to the Ho Chi Minh Road here. Also, check out this article too.

Hello,
I have 3 weeks to go from Saigon to Hanoi on motorbike. I would like to do the classic route, but not sure how much time to spend in each place (mui ne, nah trang, hoi an, caves….) or how long it takes to drive from place to place. I was wondering if there is a sample itinerary for the classic route? Thank you.

It’s very difficult to estimate time between each place because it depends so much on the individual.

In general, 3 weeks is a good amount of time to ride the Classic route. You can roughly estimate driving time based on an average speed of 40-50km per hour. Then divide that by the total distance, which is 2,770km for the Classic route.

In general, a long day of riding is 200km or more. A good (not too tiring) average daily distance is 100-150km. But of course it depends on how comfortable you are riding a motorbike and other things like weather.

For a route as long as this, it’s more about the journey that the destinations at the end of each day. However, good places to spend a couple of nights and break the driving along the way are, Dalat, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Hoi An, Hue and Phong Nha. It’s best to take it as it comes and see what you feel like once you get to these places. Unless you are travelling during a national holiday, there is no need to reserve accommodation in advance.

For more detailed information about certain places and parts of the Classic route, click on the links within the map pins, which will take you to my specific guides to that area.

Hi Tom!
First, thank you so much for your very useful info and definitely you have an awesome website.
I am planning to visit Vietnam and explore it by bike. I never experience riding a motorcycle but I think that’s not a problem for I can make myself prepare prior to that. My concern are; I just noticed you used a Yamaha Nouvo Automatic (correct me if I’m wrong) for the whole course of your travel -how did it go? Is it reliable compare to a semi or manual? How many times did you stop for a day to fill the small tank? Are there a lot of gas station and bike repair shop in case it need so along the road? That’s all for now…
Hope to hear from you soon and good luck to your next venture. Take care!

Yes, that’s right, I use my Yamaha Nouvo for all my road trips in Vietnam. It’s been very reliable for me. The tank is 4 litres and lasts for 120-150km depending on the condition of your bike and the roads you’re riding. Semi-automatics, like the Honda Wave, will do more mileage. There are gas stations almost everywhere in Vietnam, and if there’s not then they’ll be people by the roadside selling gas in bottles. The only section of road where you might not find gas is the Western Ho Chi Minh Road from Khe Sanh to Phong Nha, but they are currently building a gas station there now.

There are motorbike mechanics by the road throughout Vietnam. The word is sửa xe. They can fix most problems on common motorbikes like the Nouvo or Wave.

For a good comparison of available bikes in Vietnam, take a look at Tigit Motorbikes – there’s a link to their website in the right sidebar of this page or above this comment section.

My wife and I are doing the trip in February. We bought motorcycles a few months ago so we can learn to ride in Canada and not try to learn in the hectic Vietnamese traffic. We are looking to have a full 3 weeks in Vietnam and are thinking of doing the Classic Route. I’ve heard some people take their bikes on a train in the North towards Hanoi to save a few days. Do you have any experience with that? We were hoping to do a quick tour of Sapa, but are stretched for time so any time we could save would be great, but we also don’t want to miss the “must-see” areas on the route.

Yes, you can put you bike on the train anywhere on the main line between Saigon and Hanoi. However, in most cases your bike will travel on a different train to you, and it will not arrive at your destination until 1-3 after you do. This is because freight space is busy and limited on the north-south services. The company that deals with transporting your bike is called Door to Door. They have an office in every main station on the line and a very clear list of prices between all the stations. They are usually very efficient and will be able to tell you when your bike will arrive at its destination. Just don’t lose the receipt they give you!

Also, there are several local express train between certain points on the line, such as Saigon to Phan Thiet, and you can simply ride your bikes onto these trains. In addition to this, the Hanoi to Lao Cai (Sapa) trains also allow you to take your bike with you on the same train.

First off, your site is amazing man – so many great tips and detailed info. So helpful, thank you!

I’m currently planning a trip from Saigon to Hanoi, but unfortunately haven’t got much time, with only two weeks to squeeze it in. I’m torn between the Classic and Easier rider route and need some advice – which do you think is best in this time frame? Am I missing out too much by going for the easier-rider (Goden loop, coastal road north of Quy Nhon, Western Ho Chi Minh Road, Ninh Binh) or would it be a stretch to fit in? I don’t mind putting in in the extra km’s if need be.

With only 2 weeks you will be riding a lot of the time regardless of which route you choose to take. You can cut corners here are there: for example, you can always just take Highway 1 north from Quy Nhon to Hoi An. However, if there is one section I would most advise you not to cut it would be the Western Ho Chi Minh Road: it’s an extraordinary bit of road and there’s nothing else quite like it on any of the routes.

Firstly, thank you for all the useful information on your website. It has really aided me and my gf in the planning of our bike trip of Vietnam. We are aiming to go from Hanoi to HCMC but we need some advice in which route to take. I wanted to visit the north before heading south and we were torn between doing the NW ( Sapa – Sin ho – Son La – Moc Chau – Mai Chau) or whether we should head to the NE (Sapa – Ha Giang – Cao Bang – Ban Gioc waterfalls – Ba Be lake) before travelling down towards Ninh Binh. Which would you recommend? And what are the main differences between the NE and NW of Vietnam?

Well, the northwest and the northeast are both spectacular regions. The northwest is the roof of Indochina – the scale of the mountains and the landscape is larger than anywhere else in Vietnam. It’s a big, long loop but the roads are mostly in good condition as they are mostly highways (with the exception of the Sin Ho road, parts of which are still undergoing maintenance). The northeast is not as high as the northwest but it is prettier and more exotic – it’s characterized by limestone mountains and river valleys. The roads are smaller on this route but most of them are in decent condition.

I wouldn’t want to have to choose between them 🙂 But, I would say the northwest is slightly easier because of the roads, so if time is an issue choose this. The northeast can be slightly more unpredictable because it is more off the beaten, so it really just depends what you’re looking for.

Thanks for the advice. As we are planning on going during rainy season I think perhaps you’re right NW maybe the easier option. Though time isn’t really an issue so I may still give Ha Giang a little look before going to Sapa and then head towards Sin Ho after.
But if we were to take the NE route how would we get from Lang Son down to Ha Long bay? Are there any places you can recommend stopping en route? We were thinking maybe taking the highway 4B towards Cam Pha.
Cheers!

Yes, that’s right, you can take Highway 4B down to the coast from Lang Son – it’s a good ride. Apparently there are some good little roads running along the Chinese border in that area, but I have not had a chance to ride them myself yet.

As for stopping on route, you might want to check out Van Don Island – the big one just east of Cam Pha – there’s some great scenery and accommodation around the main town of Cai Rong here.

Hi Tom.
I travelled with some friends through Vietnam in May. Thank you very much for the guide, its helped as a lot. It’s an amazing journey that I recommend everybody to do it.
In addition to this I would like to recommend Cat ba, and if you are going to sapa to take the AH14.
The roads are quite well. If you take the loop between Hue and Phong nna, be aware of taking fuel in some bottles just in case. You never know

Hope all is well. I have already started my journey from Hanoi to Saigon and at the moment I am in Hue. After driving a lot, I do plan to stay here for a few days to rest up. It’s actually big country and you can do a lot of driving here!…haha.

I wanted to say thank you because your website has been very invaluable to me. I have been wanting to come to Vietnam since I was a kid and your information has helped make it an even better experience then I had originally conceived of.

I am following ‘The Big One’ since I have an adequate amount of time in Vietnam. I have gone off your trail at times since I am a interested in the history of the Vietnam War and I wanted to visit some of the old sights of the conflict. Otherwise, I am on the trail and the sights have been amazing throughout the north of Vietnam. It really is an absolutely beautiful country and the Ho Chi Minh Road is one that must be taken. Those mountains and views…wow.

Now I will be continue ‘The Big One’ into the South and I can’t wait for what lies ahead. If your route south is as pleasant as the route that I followed north, then I’m sure it won’t disappoint…haha.

Take care Tom and thanks again for the sight. There is so much great information that I’ve even shared it with other fellow motorbike travelers who didn’t know about it. Take care!

Thanks! It’s great to hear that you’re enjoying your epic ride through Vietnam and that my site has helped you along your way.

I hope you’ll find the south as good as the north. Personally, I like the south just as much as the north, but it is very different – you’ll be in coastal regions more often, although the mountains as still good too 🙂

To export a map: open the Google Map you want to export, click the three vertical dots next to the title of the map in the main dialogue box in the top left corner of the map, scroll down and click ‘Export to KML’ and follow the directions from there.

January is excellent in the south and Central Highlands, however it will get significantly colder and greyer the further north you go. October is a better time because conditions will be similar across the country: warm, sunny, but still some tropical downpours, and also, if you’re unlucky, it’s typhoon season in central and northern regions. I’ve written in detail about weather here.

HCMC to Dalat is not doable in one day if you take the route I suggest in The Classic. You can put your bike on the train from Saigon to Phan Thiet (Mui Ne) – more information about that here. Or, if you really want to get to Dalat in one day, you could take Highway QL20 instead, which is the most direct route, but it’s not very nice.

You can probably buy a decent bike in Dalat, but it won’t be as easy as in Saigon. You could also buy your bike from Tigit Motorbikes (see the link in the sidebar and above the comments on this page) in Saigon and have them send it to Phan Thiet by train. There’s more information about buying/renting motorbikes in this guide.

If you want to ‘donate’ to Vietnam Coracle there is a way: if you ever use Agoda to book any hotels (in Vietnam or anywhere in the world) just start your search from the search box in the right-sidebar of any of my pages: if you end up making a booking then I receive a small percentage 🙂

Hi Tom.
I used your web site for information and routes for a 3 week trip around south Vietnam. The information from your site used was never ending. It made what could have been very difficult trip a great trip. I will be back again next year for 4 weeks and looking at your north to south routes. Great keep it coming.
kev.

Hello,
Me and my boyfriend are looking to do the ‘easy rider’ route in a few weeks. However, I am struggling to find towns which we could use as a stop off point between Hanoi and the Cuc Phuong National Park. Do you have any suggestions of where to stay? The same with the route from cuc phuong national park and phong nha. As they’re such large distances between each I was hoping to get your opinion on where you stayed/where is accessible. Thanks so much! For newbies like us, your route has pretty much planned our whole trip for us 🙂

From Hanoi to Cuc Phuong you should be able to comfortably ride that in one day.

From Cuc Phuong to Phong Nha is a long way, but it is relatively easy riding. There are guesthouses (nhà nghỉ) dotted along the highway at fairly regular intervals. Cam Thuy has some, Pho Chau too, and also Huong Khe (which, incidentally is where I am right now!).

The reason I’m in Huong Khe is because I’m updating and extending my Ho Chi Minh Road guide so that it will include the entire route from Saigon to Hanoi. This means they’ll be more information about places to stay etc on the journey from Hanoi to Phong Nha, so stay tuned for that – it should be published within a few days. If you want to get an email notification when it’s published you can subscribe to my posts here if you like.

It depends if you’re going to go right into the park or not: the Ho Chi Minh Road goes through the park but the park entrance is round the other side. There’s a good homestay that’s in Cuc Phuong National Park but also on the Ho Chi Minh Road called Quang Duc Homestay – that’s assuming it’s still there: I’ll know in the next couple of days when I ride through there – again, that’ll be in the new Ho Chi Minh Road guide 🙂

Me and a friend are heading off to Thailand on the 2nd May, then going through Cambodia and Vietnam, and then finally onto Indonesia. We have 30 day visas for Vietnam, however we have still set aside around 3 weeks in Vietnam. Overall, which of these routes did you find the most enjoyable, and which would you most recommend for an inexperienced rider? We’ve heard some bad stories regarding Highway 1, so ideally we would like to avoid this as much as possible.

All of these routes are equally enjoyable and all stay off Highway 1 as much as possible.

With 3 weeks you are best sticking to The Classic and/or the Easy Rider. This is because they are both doable in your time-frame, pass through both mountains and coast, and require fairly simple navigation. However, if you really want to stay away from any traffic at all then consider taking Uncle Ho’s Road – the initial hour out of Saigon is quite busy but after that it is relatively quiet all the way to Hanoi (I am currently updating and expanding this guide to the Ho Chi Minh Road – it will be finished in about a week).

just wanted to say “Huge Thank You” for all your previous posts (as this one combines many of them into single one).

We spent 2 months on Vietnamese roads, starting in North West – Dien Bien Phu and ending on Ha Tien border crossing with Cambodia.

Your website was our guide and without it we would never discover many beautiful spots and amazing roads connecting them into unforgettable journey !

Riding in Cambodia is little bit different, less tarmac & more dirt, less traffic, little bit more corrupted cops 😉

Few little tips from us – Check Quan Lan island – accessible from Van Don ( Cai Rong ), next time you pass around Cana, take snorkel gear with you and just few kms south of the town ( opposite the eateries on main road ) jump to the water, coral wonderland will swallow you 🙂

1. You mention Saigon to Hanoi quite a few times, are there any particular benefit of doing this direction rather than north to south?

2. I was looking at your “Saigon to Hanoi – The Scenic Route”, it seems to be quite close to both #1 and #5. Are either of these adapted from the Scenic Route? Which would you recommend for first time long distance riders?

3. The image for Uncle Ho’s Road looks really nice. Do you know if that particular road is in either route #1, #5 or the “scenic route”?

No, there’s no reason you should start in the south and go north – either direction is good. However, because most travellers do go from south to north it is easier to buy bikes in Saigon and easier to sell bikes in Hanoi. But really it depends on what you want first: beaches or mountains – because most of the coastal scenery is in the south and centre, and most of the best mountainous scenery is in the centre and north.

Yes, the Scenic Route is quite similar but not the same as either #1 or #5 when you study them more closely. #1 and #5 go from coast to mountains on two or three separate occasions; the Scenic Route only does it once. #1 and #5 go through Dalat, the Scenic Route does not. There are other differences, particularly the coastal roads. The bottom line is that you’re better using the map on this page because they are the most recent and they cover everything the Scenic Route does anyway.

The image for Uncle Ho’s Road is from the Western Ho Chi Minh Road, which is included in #1.

I think South to North is better also in terms of landscapes – South is really nice, but the more to the North you get, the better and more dramatic it becomes. I think it’s better to keep the best for the end of your trip 😉

Also people in the South are bit easier to “manage” and bit friendlier, so you’ll get time to get used to things.

Thanks for your opinion. Yes, you’re right about the scenery getting more dramatic as you ride further north. But it’s also great when riding north to south: coming down off the high (often cool and misty) mountains to the brilliant sunshine and open spaces of the coastal back-roads in the south. I love the journey is both directions! 🙂

Ok, I need to take back those words about people in the North being less friendly. It’s a common opinion and having freshly arrived in the north when writing those words I was bit influenced by it, but after having spent some longer time here I don’t think there’s really big difference. Most people are very friendly and nice, few (mainly in touristic areas) may try to scam you (or at least overcharge).

I have around 3 weeks to spend in Vietnam. I am not a huge fan of beaches but like good landscapes, food and parties. Which route would you personally recommend among the five?
Also, is it possible in Vietnam to get a bike from Hanoi and leave it at Ho Chi Minh City?

There’s plenty of great landscapes in the mountains, but the parties are mostly by the coast (with the exception of Phong Nha, where a healthy influx of backpackers leads to many a social evening).

I would suggest you ride either the Classic route or the Easy Rider route. These give you lots of mountain scenery but also drop down to the coast in places like Mui Ne, Nha Trang and Hoi An/Hue where you’ll find the parties.

For motorbike rental in Hanoi check out Rent a Bike Vietnam (there’s a link above this comment section to their website) or Flamingo Travel – both should be able to arrange picking up your bike in Ho Chi Minh City.

Such a great post Tom, I have so many memories of Vietnam and this brought them all back. Would love to follow some of these in the future! I did a 3 week ride south through the Mekong + Cambodia in 2008 and it’s one of my favorite trips ever 🙂

Excellent info as ever Tom. I’m in Cambodia at the moment and heading to HCMC in two days to start a ride up to Hanoi. I’ve been inspirered by your site and this new info is very welcomed and perfectly timed! Thanks, Tom

Great to hear that you’ll be here soon to start this road trip. I hope this article has given you more ideas to play with. Do let me know of any updates on road conditions etc when you’re on the road – that kind of ‘real time’ feedback really helps to keeps my guides as current as possible.

Love the article – i’ve been saying for years now I will do this. Just told my wife I am going to do it …. she didn’t actually say no!! I have a few tips for tourists to VN on my blog too at http://saigonbuddytours.com/blog/
cheers
Andy

This is superb Tom, I think maybe we could make this a feature on our facebook page Vietnam Backpacker Sales or even on my travel agency website http://www.travelagenthanoi.com for all the backpackers travelling by bike. We see a LOT of people buying and selling bikes on our site, so this would be very very helpful to them.

Yes, I hope this article will be particularly useful to readers and travellers.

I don’t mind you using it as long as you use the direct link to my site and make it clear who the content is by, i.e. Vietnam Coracle. I’m sure you’ll understand that I get a lot of other sites copying and translating my guides word for word without any links back to my site or even a mention of where the content originally came from.

Ive posted your link to this great post in my Vietnam Backpacker Sales where backpackers can buy and sell their bikes and also on Vietnam Backpacker Tips, where sharing information about their trips through Vietnam is the main focus.